 A CAA diagram of the standard airway beacon installation. The beacon itself was a white 2 million candle power single lens that rotated. Installed on the platform below it were course lights aligned with the airway: green lights indicated a lit airport located with the beacon, amber lights indicated a airport without lights, and red course lights indicated no airport at the beacon site. The course lights flashed a Morse code number for the airway beacon number. The concrete pad arrow is shown, along with a generator that was installed for remote locations.
The arrow, generator, building and tower were initially painted chrome yellow and black., though later variations had the tower and building in orange and white also. |
 You don’t have to look far to see an example of an old airway beacon.
The rotating beacon at Lincoln was first installed on ‘Beacon Hill’ in Colfax. The FAA removed it from service in 1964 or so. It was moved to the Lincoln Airport and modified as an airport rotating beacon. A close look at the platform on top would probably reveal where the old airway course lights had once been installed. |
 A blow-up of the CAA San Francisco to Salt Lake City airway map from about 1930 or so depicting the airway beacons through the Sacramento area. Each beacon had a number assigned that was based on the mileage from the start point of the airway (divided by 10): thus, beacon “9” at Newcastle was approximately 90 miles from the airway start point at San Francisco. |